England head coach Stuart Lancaster admitted the decision to leave Harlequins number eight Nick Easter out of his World Cup squad was a tough call.

Chris Robshaw, Danny Care, Mike Brown and Joe Marler all made the 31-man squad, but Easter, who featured in last weekend’s 25-20 defeat in France missed out.

The 37-year-old was recalled to the England set-up for the 2015 Six Nations after three years out, and was tipped by clubmate Care to make yesterday’s cut.

Lancaster said: “It’s really positive that we have such depth and options to choose from.

“Selection wasn’t easy and it is tough to leave anyone out, but it’s important to stress that the players not in this group are still part of our wider squad and could come in at any point.

“After 10 weeks in camp we have made our final selection and we believe we have a great group to take us into the tournament.”

Easter went to social media to Tweet: “Absolutely gutted not to make the squad. Thanks for all the messages of support. Let’s get behind @EnglandRugby! Big couple of months.”

Care wrote: “Unbelievably proud to be selected in @EnglandRugby World Cup squad. Gutted some of the boys have had to miss out.”

England, who face Ireland on September 5 as the warm up continues, open their World Cup campaign against Fiji at Twickenham on September 18.